Bigger apartments show water savings

Posted: Sunday, November 25, 2007

It's tough to conserve water if you don't know how much you're using.

Many Athens apartment buildings have only one water meter, and tenants don't get individual bills. Despite not being able to tell how much they're saving like homeowners can, apartment dwellers also are using less water.

Six of the 20 largest water users in Athens - the University Gardens, Sussex Club, River Mill and College Park apartment complexes, the downtown Holiday Inn and the Athens Housing Authority - are residential. At all but one, Sussex Club, residents used less water last month than they did a year ago, according to Athens-Clarke Public Utilities Department data, and savings ranged from 7 percent to 27 percent.

Managers at student-oriented apartment complexes, where water usually is included in the rent, say they're doing what they can to conserve, from slipping flyers about the drought underneath doors and posting them in mail rooms to putting in work orders to fix plumbing and install water-saving fixtures.

"We know the residents have good intentions," said Wanda Ellis, manager of College Park, a 495-bedroom complex on Riverbend Road. "They're concerned about conservation and bills, especially the students, but they need to be reminded."

Ellis, also president of the Athens Apartment Association, distributed water-saving tips to other apartment managers at an association meeting Wednesday.

Athens-Clarke Water Conservation Coordinator Steven Dorsch has spoken at apartment association meetings, and Ellis said she plans to bring him back in December.

At Lakeside, a complex Ellis previously managed, she said she brought in Dorsch several months ago to perform a water audit. As a result, plumbers fixed leaky pipes and running toilets, she said. They also installed low-flow shower heads and faucet aerators the county water department gives out free, she said.

Dorsch has visited a number of apartment complexes to distribute information about the drought, Athens-Clarke government spokesman Jeff Montgomery said.

Some property owners and managers also have reported a slight downturn in occupancy rates, which could affect water use.

Landlords and property managers have good reason to alert their tenants to the drought - they'll save money on bills, and are less likely to face tougher restrictions down the road.

At the Athens Housing Authority's 1,255 units scattered across a dozen locations, water use dropped from 6.7 million gallons in October 2006 - the fourth-largest customer in the county - to 6.2 million gallons this October.

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development subsidies for public housing are partly dependent on conserving water and energy, so authority officials always are looking for ways to conserve, AHA spokeswoman Marilyn Appleby said.

Authority officials regularly remind residents of the outdoor watering ban and the need to voluntarily conserve indoors, she said.

"Our residents are talking about it, because they frequently call in with ideas that we could implement," Appleby said.

The authority has been installing low-flow toilets when commodes need replacement and installing low-flow shower heads and faucet aerators for years, she said.

The authority observed the outdoor watering ban and didn't turn outdoor faucets back on last spring after they were shut off for the winter, she said. Maintenance workers also went to each unit looking for leaks and making repairs, she said.

If Athens-Clarke officials decide to restrict water use even further - unlikely, as long as residents and industries continue to conserve - it would be landlords' responsibility to make sure their tenants cut 5 percent as required by the next step in the county's drought management plan.

"If they have people who live there who don't conserve, they could go out there and cut the water off for six hours a day," Athens-Clarke Manager Alan Reddish said. "That'd get people saving, I'm sure."